St. Augustine surf museum set to open in 2020

Growing up in the Nation’s Oldest City, a stroll down the streets of downtown St. Augustine can be oddly reminiscent of an antiquated Disney World of sorts. Peculiar happenings become familiar scenes for those who call the city home. Between the booming of cannons fired off by the Castillo de San Marcos and the troupes of rugged pirates navigating cobblestone streets, growing up in St. Augustine meant growing up in a part of history. For most, this history is closely associated with visions of fierce conquistadors and tropical, undiscovered lands. 

But there’s an aspect of the Nation’s Oldest City’s history that has been neglected until now: surf culture. 

A small team of dedicated researchers and historians from the St. Augustine Historical Society (SAHS) is working diligently uncover the sport’s history in St. Augustine, which dates back to 1915. This team, comprised of Magen Wilson, Claire Barnewolt and Jeanette Vigliotti, is dedicated to creating St. Augustine’s first surf museum. 

“It was well over a year ago when we were having a discussion on how to appeal to a wider, younger audience,” SAHS Executive Coordinator Wilson explains. “With history, most people don’t really care about history until they are historical themselves.” She adds with a laugh. 

It was during these discussions that the idea of sharing the history of surf in St. Augustine was born. 

“Our original plan was to collect some oral histories, maybe do a short term exhibit,” said Wilson. “Quickly we saw that we’ve got something really special here and now we’ve got a permanent museum coming.”

Surf Culture St. Augustine will be installed in the downstairs of the Tovar House in the Oldest House Complex, located on the corner of St. Francis and Charlotte Street. This 1,200 square foot exhibit will explore St. Augustine’s surf history, from the early 1900’s up to modern day. 

Through a collection of personal stories, historical materials, photographs and vintage surfboards, the exhibit will celebrate the history of surfing and the tight-knit local community of dedicated surfers that shaped this history. Multi-sensory displays will allow visitors to listen to the personal stories of these very surfers. Working as the catalyst for this project, assist librarian Barnewolt began her research, delving into discovering the surf legends of yesteryear. Thus far, Barnewolt has collected over 30 oral histories for the museum. 

“It’s so cool seeing how people have affected others within the surfing community itself,” Barnewolt said. “People build each other up and I don’t even know if they realize. They sit down and open their hearts and souls to us when we’re asking the questions.”

In addition to the team contacting the pioneers of surf culture in St. Augustine, digital media specialist Jeanette Vigliotti created a Facebook page to spark a conversation about the city’s surfing history. 

“We started out by asking questions just to try to get the group chatting with each other,” Vigliotti explains. “But since then we’ve backed off and the group is talking together organically. This is such a great community to do that with because of their level of conversation and willingness to talk and share the passion.”

The SAHS team is careful to meticulously record all interviews and oral histories gathered, to ensure authenticity. This means listening to these interviews with a well-tuned ear to create transcriptions for future reference. These recordings and transcriptions will then be available to the public in Research Library of the St. Augustine Historical Society. (Which, by the way, holds information an eclectic collection of topics and is located right on the corner of Aviles Street.) 

“We take things very seriously here,” Wilson shares. “People are trusting us with their words and their stories. We want to do right by them and we really want to make this something for the community to be proud of. That’s our main goal I think.”

Surf Culture St. Augustine is slated to open June or July of 2020. The exhibit is planned to include histories of legendary local surfboard shapers, 1960s vintage swimsuits, an exploration of the best surf breaks over the decades, a surf shop culture panel and much, much more. 

“The surf culture exhibit is offering another way to look at what history is,” Vigliotti said. “It allows people to see that what they’re doing at this moment is actually part of a larger conversation.”

Visitors will be welcomed to explore surfing in St. Augustine throughout the decades, hearing from local legends like of our own Tory Strange. Strange will be joined by the voices of those responsible for creating modern day surf culture in the city, including Zander Morton. 

“Zander was excellent in kind of summarizing this culture for us,” Wilson said. “He mentioned how the waves can be sporadic here, but the fact that when they are good, everybody drops what they’re doing. It makes for a really close-knit surfing community.”

The historical society aims to keep this spirit of community alive by putting on family-friendly events for the museum’s opening next year. SAHS plans to kick off the festivities with a panel of experts from the industry from various eras, spanning from the 1960s to current day. As for the opening, the team plans to have music, surfboard shaping demos, food trucks and more to include the local community in this new addition to St. Augustine’s history. 

“I would hope that they [visitors] will be surprised that surfing is something that’s been around for as long as it has,” Barnewolt explains. “People have been really welcoming and willing to speak. My hope is that when the exhibit actually opens and we have the opening event, that it’s going to be a lot of love.”